Because, what else can you do? I hear stories of others’ woes, I am immediately empathetic. One friend lost her husband recently, and she just sold his truck. She said she mourns not for what was but what might have been. Now this made perfect sense to me. I need to tell her, if you can articulate this, then you are on your way to making peace with yourself about it.

I thought about the loss of Ginsberg today. I talked with Ruth and Bader about this – they are feeling the loss of their third buddy. It’s just strange, for her not to be there. It’s strange for me, too. This is a loss of what was, not what wasn’t. I think we’ll have to keep the number to two because it would be hard on all to form a threesome.

I had two white hens before I acquired the three red hens – the group of two and the group of three kept their distance from one another.

In time, there will be at least one other chicken. The egg laying duration of chickens is not that long. But it gives me a sense of satisfaction to check in on, water, and feed them.

Right now it’s the same with the goats and the horses. I do not know when my workload is going to decrease. This is dependent upon funding. Gosh, it would be great if we could hire another staff person – and I know who this person might be.

In the meantime, there is always a meantime – the show goes on and on and on. I distributed books at the Palmer Pool and the Lekker Bakery. Both places took a lot of books. There are now gaps in the shelves at the hotel. A good sign.

Pete and I then went to the fairgrounds, which had hardly any people walking around or even doing work. And there was no traffic. We stocked the newspaper boxes. And we moved the box that was located in front of Raven Hall to in front of Becky’s topiary exhibit. We also took out the history books, and in their place we put the Alaska books. It felt good to do this.

On our way to the bee both exhibit (where Pete took his honey), we ran into Becky, who was heading to her garden office, head down. She looked up and Pete, and her, and I stood talking for 15 minutes. She really has no idea how talented she is, or how her gardening efforts have transformed the fair. Or maybe she does and is modest about it.

It does keep her going. Like me, she needs to find others who are willing and able to take on such projects and run with them. This is not beyond the realm of possibility. The way has been paved for such individuals.

So today and tomorrow are break days. Then back to it. I hope I feel rested because right now I feel spent.

Next: 224. 8/20/25: Affirmation as Motivator